News
Local

Large crude oil spill near Little Buffalo

Little Buffalo School is closed indefinitely following the largest oil spill in Alberta in 36 years on Lubicon Cree First Nation territory, about 100 kilometres away from Peace River.

Over 28,000 barrels of crude oil flowed out of a pipeline, owned and operated by Plains Midstream Canada, which began leaking at 7:30 a.m. on Friday, April 29.

Many of the 125 kids who attend the school began noticing headaches, dizziness, disorientation and nausea at about 9:30 a.m. that same day, though the school staff were unaware of the incident at that time. The school closed for the day and then re-opened again Monday; staff and students still largely unaware of the spill, aside from rumoured word from Lubicon community members. It was evacuated again that day because of the odour and its affects on the kids.

Reached by phone last Wednesday, principal Brian Alexander said he is feeling in the dark about the situation, not knowing what to do.

"We haven't been able to get answers. I am just standing by the phone," he told the Record-Gazette.

He said he is waiting on direction from the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB,) the regulator of Alberta's oil and gas industry.

"I am in disbelief of how they are handling the situation," he said.

Chief of the Lubicon Cree First Nation, Steve Noskey, concurs with Alexander's sentiment.

"This is a lot of disrespect to First Nations as a whole," Noskey said. By Thursday, almost a week after the spill, Noskey had not personally heard a word from the ERCB, Alberta Health Services or Alberta Environment, he said.

Noskey said he would expect that he would be the person contacted, as he is the Chief of the affected First Nation.

Little Buffalo School received a fax from the ERCB on Tuesday afternoon around 3 p.m., according to Noskey, informing them of the spill. It was a one-page fact sheet containing only basic information.

Tuesday night, four days after the spill, there was a meeting scheduled between Plains, the Little Buffalo community and the ERCB, but the latter of the three opted out hours before the meeting was to commence.

ERCB spokesman Davis Sheremata confirmed the ERCB did not attend the meeting, but could not say why. He said the ERCB is working to bring the leak under control in conjunction with Plains Midstream Canada and Alberta Environment.

Sheremata says it is unlikely the odour experienced by the kids at the school is from the oil spill.

"It could be the leak although it would be surprising," he said.

Air monitors have been set up on the spill site, and Sheremata says there are no readings in-excess of Alberta Ambient Air Quality Objectives and Guidelines and the ERCB's doubt of the spill as the source springs from this information.

He said the ERCB is on-site, attempting to locate the source of the odour.

"Often we will get calls from communities around the province," he said, speaking to odour complaints.

As the staff at Little Buffalo School originally believed the odour to be a propane leak (though investigation proved this untrue,) Sheremata says this further attests to the idea that it is not crude-spill related.

"A propane smell shouldn't come from a crude oil pipeline," he said.

In a media conference call Wednesday, provincial Environment Minister Rob Renner told reporters that he has been advised that the spill is in a "very remote area," and though it was a large spill, it is under control. Renner said he was not made aware of the potential impacts on humans, or the school being closed until very recently, at the time of the call.

Though adding that this was not to discount the community's health concerns, he said that the odours experienced do not necessarily carry dangerous chemicals.

The spill has been contained in stands of stagnant water, remaining 300 metres away from any flowing water, according to Alberta Environment spokesman Trevor Gemmell.

On one side of the spill site, a beaver dam obstructed further spreading of crude oil. Six beavers were euthanized as a result of the spill and ten ducks either perished in the oil or were put down as a result, according to Gemmell.

Over 300 people are working on the cleanup, 24 hours a day. As of Friday, 910 cubic metres of the 45,000 spilled had been cleaned up.

"Our expectation is that it will get cleaned up and remediated," Gemmell said, which is the responsibility of Plains Midstream Canada. The clean up process includes vacuum trucks taking the product off the ground and skimmers working to remove oil off the stands of water. The crude will be dug up, treated and likely disposed of in a landfill, according to Gemmell.

In terms of long-term clean up, the entire area will need to be remediated, but the specifics will have to be assessed after the immediate clean up is completed.

Plains is currently working with environmental experts to address the how-to of cleaning up the area.

The Rainbow Pipeline is 44-years-old, and runs from Zamba, Alta. to Edmonton, and carries an average of 187,000 barrels of oil a day.

Little Buffalo is a community of about 350 people. According to Chief Noskey, who did a fly-over of the area last week, the community is 10 kilometers away from the spill, as tracked on a GPS device.